Background

Zimbabwe has over 200 000 teachers who can potentially pool resources and invest in viable business opportunities available in the country and abroad. Teachers have catapulted many companies unto multi-million business entities yet their lives remain marginalized and impoverished. Educators have not benefited much from the skewed supplier-clientele relationship with capitalistic business entities in the country. Its high time teachers unite and organize themselves into a formidable business force capable of displacing and replacing these business entities exploiting the economically defenseless teacher. Teachers have been disenfranchised to beneficially participate in the mainstream economy and contribute towards attainment of broader national goals. There is indeed great potential imprisoned in classrooms that ought to be liberated and emancipated.

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The empowerment initiative is meant to transform teachers from being mere clients of other companies to be proud shareholders and clients of their own successful and flourishing business entities. The empowerment movement is poised to grow into a diversified complex with business interests cutting across all major sectors of the economy including education, mining, agriculture, transport etc.

Now is the time for teachers to mobilize and act as a united economic force — reclaiming their share of the wealth they create. There is vast untapped potential within classrooms that must be liberated and empowered. With the labour front increasingly fragmented and polarized, investment collectivism offers a practical solution to the economic challenges confronting teachers today.

Trust History

Amid limitations by the labour front to address key challenges confronting the teacher in and outside the classroom, economic collectivism presented itself as the only viable alternative capable of changing the fortunes of educators in the country. The first group of inspired teachers gathered in Harare Gardens on 01 December 2018 to strategize the formation of an empowerment movement that would represent teachers on the economic front.Among a plethora of considered approaches, a trust was deemed the most appropriate to achieve desired goals. A resolution was then passed to register an investment trust at the inaugural meeting attended by 6 members. An executive committee was then formed to spearhead registration of the Trust and mobilization of membership in all provinces.

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Leveraging on technology an online nationwide mobilization campaign was launched which received overwhelming response by teachers across the unions divide. On 30 September 2019, the Zimbabwe Teachers Investment Trust was officially registered culminating to its historic launch on 07 January 2020 at Highfields High 1 School in Highfields, a symbolic high-density suburb in Harare recognised for birthing famous revolutions including the protracted armed struggle that brought the country’s independence. The revolutionary fire then quickly spread and structures were established in all provinces and districts to administer the trust operations and decentralize decision making powers

The empowerment revolution was not without detraction. Fierce resistance came from Teachers’ Unions which employed various shenanigans to misinform and disinform teachers with aim to blackmail the noble initiative. It would take time for unions to realize that the economic movement was meant to complement their efforts to transform the lives of educators rather than establishing rivalry. The history of the trust is incomplete without mentioning the 2019 detracting maneuvers by the famous 7 School Heads of Mashonaland Central and the Manicaland Revolt of 2020 which remain rich part of the Trust history.

ZITIT Assistant